Edward Irving: an interpretation of his life and theological teaching

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Jesus Christ had become a figure, remote and speculat¬
ive, to many minds in the early Nineteenth Century. Chris¬
tianity was either a code of ethics or a quasi-political
creed of human achievement, and the Church the refuge of
respectability and material success. For Irving the exist¬
ing expression of religious truth was a shattering rebuke.
All his efforts, thinking and writing became an attempt to
break through to reality and yet not depart from foundation
beliefs and doctrines. Like all reformers he looked back
as well as forward. The faith once delivered to the saints
was real enough. It was a new and fresh understanding and
interpretation which was of urgent moment. His recurring
claim to orthodoxy was not a smoke screen to cover erratic
and esoteric thought, but an honest proclamation of essential
truth.

To-day we may find it difficult to sympathise with the
extremes of opinion which beat about his brief life, and we
may puzzle at the arguments which sometimes he developed at
such length, but his instinct was right if his conclusions
were on occasion wrong. An ethereal Christ just as much
as a human Jesus was no answer to man's need, and no answer
to man's essential problem. It is to Irving's credit that
he sought to do for his generation, what still remains to be
done for ours: to preach a Christ who will satisfy mail's
longing, inspire his devotion, and make whole his life. No
Theology can square with present problems and bring alive
religious belief which does not humanize the Christ of God
and make Divine the Jesus of History. Irving was a lot
nearer truth than his judges were. It remains the task of
tiiis generation to clarify the issues which he raised, and
to make vivid and strong the doctrines which he drew out of
the shades of unbelief and obscurity.

There is a spot near Haddington which was once known
as Irving?s leap. Irving was always leaping further than
he could see, and higher than it was safe. That was at
once his glory and his undoing. He does, however, point
to the place from whence we must leap, and he has described
as nearly as is humanly possible the place of our arrival.
Dr. George MacLeod has recently asked,

Irving would have denied that at any stage in his life,
he was a rebel against the Church, but he was always a 3harp
critic of its ways and manners. He did, however, believe
that the STRUCTURE of its life required change. He brought
to sharp focus the question which faces us just as urgently
to-day - how to reform the Church frora within. He failed
to keep a foothold within orthodoxy, and it remains to be
seen whether reformation is possible without the forced or
chosen excommunication of the Individual reformer. What
Irving meant by the Church's structure, was its ministry,
its government and its economy. Within a few years of his
death the Disruption of the Church in Scotland was proof
enough of Ms right Instinct. He was moved to challenge
the prevailing conception of the Ministry, not primarily
because it was inadequate for Its work, but because it did
not conform to Biblical Teaching. While he held a high

In the previous chapter we briefly considered Irving's
many writings which ccane under the heading "Prophecy".
Signs are not wanting of a revival of interest in these, as
indeed in Irving himself as a theologian. Modern preoccupation
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with a Christian Philosophy of History must lead to a closer
examination of vshat Irving was searching after in the many
pages which he wrote under this heading. It Is possible
that Irving's claim to a place among Scotland's great
theologians may yet be upheld when these comparatively un¬
known works are tested and more clearly understood. What
stands out as a beacon In all his preaching and teaching,
is that Theology is no intellectual exercise governed solely
by reason and a scrutiny of Holy Scripture and amplified by
the ancient Creeds, but something deeply rooted in life,
always in transition, and afire with the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit - the expression of the Mind of Christ in this
period of the time between the times - between the time of
Christ's coming in flesh and His coming again In glory.